I recently sent 3 copies of "The Invention of Air" to two psychology classmates, life long friends, and to my niece -- all of them Unitarians. It's about Joseph Priestley who discovered oxygen (and other things), was a founder of the Unitarian church, and an influential friend of Franklin, Jefferson and, to a lesser extent, Adams and Washington.
I recently got a copy from our public library and read it. Fascinating book. I didn't realize that the giant ferns and trees, as well as the giant dinosaurs were made possible by a richer proportion of oxygen in the earth's atmosphere than we have now -- or that the deposits of coal formed by the death of the giant trees and ferns came about because the types of fungi and bacteria that eat dead vegetable matter had not yet evolved. Or Priestley's influence on religion and American politics. If you go to
www.npr.org , you can look up and hear a half hour interview with the author that aired on Talk of the Nation/Science Friday a few months ago -- that's what got me interested.
Below is an Amazon review:
57 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
An Erudite Assessment of the Life, Times and Ideas of One Man, December 26, 2008
By Eric F. Facer "E. Facer"
Steven Johnson has written an engaging book about Joseph Priestley, a true Renaissance Man who contributed mightily to the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th Century. Priestley was a remarkable individual who distinguished himself in several different fields: theology, chemistry, science, politics, philosophy, history and technology. He was also a prolific writer who had the good fortune of hobnobbing with the best and the brightest of his day: Franklin, Lavoisier, Jefferson, Canton and Adams, to name just a few.
Johnson does an exceptional job of telling Priestley's story, explaining his scientific discoveries, political philosophies, and theological insights, and putting them all in their proper context. But he goes one step further: he endeavors to explain why Priestley accomplished what he did. He doesn't just focus on Priestley's character traits and native intelligence (both of which were extraordinary); rather, he attributes much of the man's success to his environment, to his friends, to the evolution of technology, and, quite simply, to good fortune. At a time when we are inundated with trendy books that pander to the public's appetite for facile explanations of complex processes (e.g., "Blink," "Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious," etc.), it is refreshing to see someone acknowledge that scientific discoveries, sociological insights and great ideas more often than not take years to evolve and are the product of numerous variables, many of which remain a mystery.
Priestley's enthusiasm, openness and child-like fascination with the world around him are infectious. Though he was not without shortcomings and, on occasion, got things completely wrong, Priestley was an intellectual giant upon whose shoulders many great scientists, philosophers and discoverers will continue to stand well into the 21st Century. And Mr. Johnson has rendered a valuable service by re-telling Mr. Priestley's story from a fresh and enlightening perspective. Highly recommended.
